"Advanced" doesn't necessarily mean "complicated." With a little practice, OOo Calc's advanced features will help you make elegant spreadsheets for almost any home or office need. This chapter will help you get acquainted with OpenOffice.org's Calc function.

This chapter is from the book

"Advanced" doesn't
necessarily
mean "complicated." With
a little
practice,
OOo
Calc's
advanced
features
will
help
you
make
elegant
spreadsheets
for
almost
any
home
or office
need.

Creating "Natural-Language" Formulas

OOo Calc can compute any formula as long as the syntax is right. With
Microsoft Excel, you have to know the coordinates of the values you want to
compute. But OOo Calc has a "natural language," meaning you can create
formulas using column and/or row labels.

Using the file Sales.ods, you will make a "natural-language"
formula.

Our original formula in cell E4 was =D4*0.3. Instead of using that formula,
let’s change the coordinate D4 to the word Sales, because we are
computing sales multiplied by 0.3, or 30 percent. The results are the same.